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For faith leaders who support and serve anxious immigrants across the United States, 2025 has been filled with challenges and setbacks. For many in these religious communities, the coming year could be even worse.
The Nature of Their Fear: The President Donald Trump His disparaging comments and policy proposals have grown harsher, blaming immigrants for problems such as crime and housing shortages and calling for “reverse immigration” in social media posts.
Haitians fleeing gang violence in their home country, and Afghan People who were allowed entry after assisting the United States in Afghanistan before the Taliban takeover now fear their asylum in the United States could end under draconian policy changes. Somali Americans, especially in minnesotaPeople are worried about the future of the Twin Cities after Trump called them “trash.”
The chair of the Catholic Bishops Conference’s subcommittee on racial justice urged public officials not to use dehumanizing language after Trump’s defamatory remarks.
“Every child God “There is value and dignity. Language that denigrates an individual or a community based on race or country of origin is incompatible with that fact,” said Bishop Daniel Garcia of Austin, Texas.
Here’s a look at the future for these targeted immigrant communities and the faith leaders supporting them.
Haitians in trouble
In 2024, Trump falsely accuses Haitians springfieldOhio, eats neighbor’s cats and dogs. That heightened concerns about anti-immigration sentiment in the city of about 59,000 people, where more than 15,000 Haitians live and work.
Thousands of people have settled in Springfield in recent years under the Temporary Protected Status program.
Their prospects now look bleak. The TPS program, which allowed many Haitians to stay legally in Springfield and elsewhere, is set to expire in early February.
“This would be an economic and humanitarian disaster,” said the Rev. Carl Ruby, pastor of Central Christian Church. Central Christian Church is one of several churches in Springfield supporting Haitians.
Springfield Haitian community leaders Ruby Dorsainvil and Viles Dorsainvil recently traveled to Washington to seek help from members of Congress.
“Every legislator we talked to said legislatively nothing was going to happen. Trump’s rhetoric was getting harsher,” Ruby said. “It felt like nothing was going the way we wanted it to.”
Many Haitians fear their lives would be in danger if they returned to their homeland, where gangs are rampant.
Ruby said faith communities have united in support of immigrants in the face of Trump’s crackdown.
“This strengthens our resolve to oppose this practice,” he said. “We have more and more churches in Springfield saying we will provide shelter…and we will do everything we can to protect our members.”
afghan refugees
Trump suspended the U.S. refugee program on the first day of his second term. The halt of the program and its federal funding affects hundreds of faith-based organizations that assist refugees.
Among them is Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Region, which serves the surrounding area of Washington, D.C., and which lost 68% of its budget this year. The organization laid off two-thirds of its staff, reducing its headcount from nearly 300 to 100 people.
Many of its employees and nearly two-thirds of its customers are Afghan. Many collaborated with the United States in Afghanistan and fled after the Taliban took over from the U.S.-backed government in 2021.
The Trump administration announced new immigration restrictions after an Afghan national became a suspect in the Nov. 26 shooting of two National Guard members in Washington.
“This is a shock to our team. It’s terrible,” said LSSNCA CEO Kristyn Peck.
Peck said there is growing fear among Afghans among her staff and there is a false public narrative that Afghan immigrants are a threat.
“Now, a whole group of people are being targeted and blamed for this senseless act of violence,” she said.
She still finds reasons for hope.
“We’re going to continue to do a good job,” Peck said. “Even in challenging times, we see people putting their faith into action.”
Volunteers have stepped up to provide services that staff no longer have funding to provide, including programs to help Afghan women with English and job skills training.
U.S.-based World Aid, a global Christian humanitarian organization overseen by the National Association of Evangelicals, joined center-left religious groups in condemning the new crackdown on Afghan refugees.
“When President Trump announced his intention to ‘permanently halt’ all immigration from ‘third world countries,’ he insulted the majority of the global church,” declared World Relief CEO Myle Green. “When his administration shuts down all Afghans because of the evil actions of one man, he risks abandoning tens of thousands of people who risk their lives fighting alongside U.S. troops.”
Somalis targeted by Trump
In mid-December, imams and other leaders of Minnesota’s Somali community formed a task force to address the fallout from a major fraud scandal, a surge in immigration enforcement and Trump’s disparaging remarks about the largest group of Somali refugees in the United States.
“We are not reducing crime, we are expanding success,” said Imam Yusuf Abdul.
He leads the Islamic Society of North America, a network of more than three dozen mosques, mostly in East Africa. About half are in Minnesota, which since the late 1990s has been home to a growing number of Somali refugees who have become increasingly influential in local and U.S. politics.
“Every immigrant community goes through hard times with unfortunate things like fraud or youth violence,” Abdul said. “Somalia has been a very resilient, very successful community over the years.”
Although most Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens or are here legally, many abandoned local businesses and mosques when immigration enforcement surged, Abdul said.
The new task force includes more than two dozen faith and business leaders and community organizers. Addressing community fears is the first challenge, followed by ramping up advocacy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“Every election year, rhetoric increases. So we want to fight back against these hateful rhetoric while bringing our community together,” said community leader Abdullahi Farah.
Faith leaders respond
In mid-November, U.S. Catholic bishops overwhelmingly issued a “special message” condemning developments that have led to fear and anxiety among immigrants. This marks the first time in twelve years that bishops have invoked this urgent form of collective address.
“We are concerned about conditions in detention centers and the lack of pastoral care,” the message said. “We oppose indiscriminate mass deportations. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or law enforcement.”
The bishops thanked the priests, sisters and laity who accompanied and assisted the migrants.
“We urge all persons of good will to continue and expand such efforts,” the message said.
Yehiel Curry, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, issued a similar pastoral message last month, thanking ELCA congregations for their support of immigrants amid “aggressive and indiscriminate immigration enforcement.”
“Racial profiling and harm against our immigrant neighbors shows no signs of abating, so we will heed God’s call to stand alongside these neighbors,” Curry wrote.
HIAS, an international Jewish nonprofit that serves refugees and asylum seekers, condemned the Trump administration’s recent actions.
“As a Jewish organization, we are also very aware of what it means for an entire community to be targeted because of the actions of one person,” HIAS said.
“We will always stand with those seeking opportunities to safely rebuild their lives, including those who are now targeted by harmful policies and hateful rhetoric in the Afghan-American and Somali-American communities.”
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